I Joke Too Much

A Theatre Director's Tale

by Michael Rudman

A new autobiography, I Joke Too Much by Michael Rudman, will be published by Capercaillie Books on Thursday 7 August. A rollicking journey across the great stages of New York, London and the provinces; encounters with well known and not so well known characters; a full-bodied account of behind the stage, its own drama and surprises, comedy and tragedy and of course the jokes ...

Michael Rudman is an American born Theatre Director of international repute and has directed award winning plays with many outstanding actors, on Broadway, the West End, the National Theatre, Hampstead Theatre and the Traverse Theatre Edinburgh.

These include Tony Award winning Death of a Salesman with Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich, Death of A Salesman with Warren Mitchell at the National Theatre, A Man for All Seasons with Martin Shaw, Fallen Angels with Felicity Kendal and Frances de la Tour, Michael Frayn’s Donkey’s Years, Alphabetical Order and Clouds. At the National his productions have included Fathers and Sons by Turgenev, adapted by Brian Friel with Alec McCowen, Ralph Fiennes and Lesley Sharp and Six Characters In Search of An Author with Barbara Jefford, Ralph Fiennes and Lesley Sharp.

While Michael was Artistic Director at Hampstead, the theatre won the Evening Standard Award for Outstanding Achievement where productions included Mike Leigh’s ‘Abigail’s Party’ and Foco Novo’s ‘The Elephant Man’. Michael’s recent productions include Old Masters by Simon Gray at Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven, with Sam Waterston and Brian Murray and Chin Chin by Francis Billetdoux with Simon Callow and Felicity Kendal UK tour 2013.

Michael Rudman was born in Texas and educated at Oberlin College and St Edmund Hall, Oxford. His career began in the UK at the Nottingham Playhouse, where he was Assistant Director and Associate Producer to John Neville from 1964-1968. He was Director of the Traverse from 1970-1973, after which he became Artistic Director at Hampstead Theatre until 1978 when he was invited to join the National Theatre by Sir Peter Hall and directed many successful plays there over the next ten years. He spent the 1990 season at the Chichester Festival Theatre and then as Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres. He has directed plays on Broadway and the West End to much critical acclaim. He lives and works in London.